Taking Over Me
by super-sugarzoom
Summary: Ed finds some alchemy books in Winry's basement and decideds to check them out... yeah the stories actually better than it sounds. Hinted WinryXEd and RoyXRiza.
1. Chapter 1

Hey people, this is my first Full Metal Alchemist fic so please don't eat me!

Right, a little bit of background…

Al is still in his armour

Ed still has metal limbs

Roy and his unit (Breda, Havoc, Hawkeye, Fury, and Falmann) are staying at Winry's house along with Ed, Al, Hughes and his family, Armstrong and anyone else I will bring into it, for the summer holidays.

The homunculus will most likely appear at some point. Yeah I keep switching to little Japanese phrases or words like 'ne' and 'hai' and stuff so please pay it no heed, it's just habit now. Oh yeah, please tell me if I've made any spelling mistakes with the names of the people, I'm not exactly brilliant with names.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own anything what so ever, poor me!

Taking over me

Chapter 1- They're just children

* * *

Alphonse Elric laughed and held his older but smaller brother back as he yelled at his superior, Col. Roy Mustang.

"YOU MAY CALL ME SMALL BUT I'M NOT SO TITCHY THAT I CAN'T REACH YOUR KNEECAPS!"

"What ever short-ass, you shouldn't stress so much; I've heard it stunts your growth." Ed froze in Al's arm.

"Oh no you didn't just insult me again!" He tried even harder to get to Mustang.

"Brother please, stop!" Ed stopped struggling and pulled a face at Mustang, who stuck his tongue out in a childish manner. "Thank you. I'm gonna let go of you now, promise not to launch yourself at Roy?" Ed just mumbled something in reply. Al gingerly took his strong armoured arms away and let go of his brother but kept his hands at the ready should he need to catch him. Ed stayed where he was but looked _very_ ticked off.

"Why don't you go get some water and cool yourself down," Mustang said looking down on Ed, "Surely such a small body would get easily over heated." He smirked as Ed's eyes narrowed, but the chibi followed the advice and walked into the kitchen. He instantly cheered up when he saw Winry sitting down at the kitchen table, her entire days work spread out across it. The new auto-mail arm glinted in the light, surrounded by wires and various pieces of metal as she sat back in her chair.

"I'm finally finished." She said looking over at Ed.

"How long has that taken you now?"

"About two days without sleep."

"And why have you made it again?"

Winry yawned, "Because I was bored."

"Okay, then what are you gonna do with it now?"

"Put it into storage like all the others I've made." She got up and picked it up carefully and walked towards the wooden door that was meant to be a pantry, but had ended up being the storage room for all Winry's products of boredom. "I made it in your size."

"What? Why? You just fitted me with a new arm." Ed paused in the action of pouring a glass of water.

"Because you go through them like crazy, like you just said, I only just fitted you with a new one." Winry shut the door to the storage room and sat back down in her seat at the table.

"And?" Ed smirked at her.

"I'd only just fitted you with another new one the week before that." She had intended to sound angry but was too tired after pulling another all nighter.

"What's your point?" Ed asked playfully.

"You're reckless, just be careful with the one you've got now okay?" Ed nodded and drank his water as Maes Hughes came in through the back door.

"Thanks again Winry, this place is great!"

"No problem, glad to have the company to tell you the truth." She yawned again. Winry had invited Roy, his unit and a few other friends to stay with her for the summer holidays. It was lonely now for Winry as Pinako Rockbell had died recently. Hughes had brought his wife Glacier and his daughter Elysia with him so as to make it a family holiday. Winry hadn't minded of course, the house was big enough for everyone to stay in and plus there was the barn should more people turn up.

"Elysia is having the time of her life. You know when I retire from the military I'm moving into a place like this, it's a really beautiful place." Winry and Ed nodded their agreement as Hughes sat down at the table with them. Silence descended on the kitchen and the sounds of Elysia and Den, Winry's dog, playing outside floated in though the open back door. It had been extremely hot the last few weeks and the villagers of Risembool were worried the river may dry up. A water shortage was the last thing they needed.

"Daddy!" Elysia called, "Daddy, Mommy's back!" Hughes stood up with a smile and walked out to greet his wife who had gone shopping at the local market with Riza Hawkeye.

"It's nice to have everyone here." Winry said quietly, knowing she was dreading the time the holidays were over and everyone would have to go back to Central, including Ed and Al. Even though that was a long way off; everyone had only been here for two days so far, but still she feared being left alone again.

"Yeah, though I wish the bastard Colonel would stay off my back. He's starting to do my head in." Winry just giggled, and yawned again.

"I'm gonna go to bed for a few hours." She announced standing up and stretching.

"About time, you need your beauty sleep." Ed joked which gained him a gentle tap on the arm from Winry. Ed heard her footsteps go up the stairs and head into her room. He sighed; he really didn't want to leave her again. The minute he found out about Aunt Pinako's death, he had come straight over to make sure she was alright. She seemed to be dealing with it alright but Ed knew she was screaming on the inside. Aunt Pinako had been the only true family she had left, she still had Ed and Al but they weren't really her family, nor did they really act like it, leaving her for months at a time, returning to get Ed's auto-mail repaired so that he could repair Al, then leave again only to come back a few months later in a worse state. Ed looked up as Riza entered the kitchen carrying a few paper bags in her arms.

"Hello Ed, how are you?"

"I'm fine thank you Riza; did you have fun at Risembool market?"

"Actually yes I did, you wouldn't think such a small, quiet village would have so many stalls devoted to guns!" she smiled brightly. "What have you been up to?"

_Arguing with your god damn bastard of a boyfriend…_

"Nothing much."

"You should get out and enjoy the sunshine; we won't get chance back in Central." Ed liked Riza when she was off duty and unarmed, she was nice and relaxed. She wore her hair down and casual clothing, looking more like a normal woman rather than the strict Lieutenant she was in Central city.

"Yeah alright." Ed mumbled dragging himself up and out through the back door. Riza shook her head.

_Typical lazy teenager…_

Al appeared in the kitchen a while later. "Where did brother go?" he asked Riza.

"I made him go outside, you should be out there too, have another mock battle with your brother, he's getting lazy." Riza answered and reprimanded at the same time.

"Yes ma'am." Al followed Ed through the back door and Riza heard him yell after his brother. A long while later she heard the distinct metal clangs and clunks of auto-mail on armour. The boys never passed up a chance to practise fighting each other, and it amused everyone to know that Ed rarely won over his younger brother.

"Are they fighting again?" a deep voice asked from the kitchen/living room door way. Riza turned to see her boyfriend leaning against the doorframe.

"Yes, I told them to get some exercise." She walked across to the kitchen table and began to clear away the tools and metal pieces Winry had left out on the kitchen table. Roy almost laughed, Riza looked like a housewife or a mother clearing up after her three messy teenagers.

_She treats them like they_ are _her children, like they _belong_ to her._

At this thought, Roy's smile faded a little and his heart tugged in his chest.

_It isn't fair…_

"ED! AL! BE CAREFUL WITH THAT AUTO-MAIL!" Roy and Riza laughed hearing Winry's shout from the balcony outside her bedroom.

"Ed will be the death of that girl one of these days." Roy said eyeing the gun parts Riza had bought that day at the market, "Do you really need all that?"

"Yes, it will improve my shooting skills."

"You're already excellent at shooting; you put the rest of us to shame."

"Then you should work harder." Riza deposited all of the tools into the tool bag beside the table and carried it over to the storage room. Roy sighed, he wasn't about to get into another discussion which would end up with Riza demonstrating some of her sharp shooting abilities and leaving Roy looking over his shoulder every few seconds for the next couple of days.

"I'm gonna go watch Ed and Al." Roy started across the kitchen.

"You mean you're going to criticize every move Ed makes and get him so wound up that he will start mouthing off and taking swings at you so that you can just torch him and make yourself feel good ne?" Riza didn't even look up.

Roy smirked, "Something like that." He started down towards the lake where he knew Ed and Al always placed their mock battles so as not to harm anything or anyone. He walked round the large clump of bushes and trees shielding the view of the lake from the house (but more so to keep Winry from seeing how roughly the boys were fighting) and found some of his unit sitting on the grass, cheering Ed on, in hopes that he may actually win this one (and to settle the bet they had made a few minutes prior to the battle). Roy sat down next to Cain Fury, the young, dark haired, bespectacled Sergeant Major. "Who's winning?"

"Well, they're both doing well, but Ed is tiring out whereas Al doesn't get tired."

"Yeah but Al tends to make a few mistakes which Ed takes advantage of." Watteau Falmann added. It was clear they had bet against each other and their argument over who was better caused them to miss the out come of the battle.

Al had bent over at the lake's edge with his back to Ed after receiving a kick to the helmet from his brother's auto-mail leg, Ed had then ran at Al with an almighty speed and had attempted to jump on Al's back to push him to the ground but Al had dropped and rolled out of the way at the last second and Ed had ended up in the lake. He had cried out before he hit the surface and disappeared underneath.

Roy laughed along with his friends and Al did a little victory dance. Ed surfaced again gasping from the lack of oxygen; he brought his hand out of the water and brushed his wet hair out of his face.

"Al, look what I found!" he lifted his auto-mail arm and showed his brother a little toy steam engine made out of thick dark wood.

"Wow, my train!" Al rushed into the lake and waded over to his brother; he then picked Ed up and placed him on his back so that he was giving him a piggyback ride. Ed couldn't swim very well so Al would usually carry him this way when there was water that was deep, it just made life easier.

They reached the bank and climbed out, Ed passing the toy train down to Fury as they started back towards the house, to make sure Ed and Al got dry properly before they rusted.

"What's with the train, and why was it at the bottom of the lake?" Fury asked looking the toy over.

"It was my favourite toy when I was younger; we found out from Mom that when Dad had left a few years before he had transmuted it for me. Ed got mad and took my train and the toy horse Dad had made for him down to the lake and threw them in."

"I didn't want anything that bastard transmuted left in the house." Ed said bitterly, his face set. He smiled again though when he saw Armstrong waving at them from the balcony, signalling that dinner was ready.

"Great timing," Havoc said nudging Fury, "I'm starving."

"Must have been all that nothing you did while watching us fight." Ed said sarcastically, while still sitting upon Al's back.

"Yeah okay, no need to get bitchy." Havoc retorted playfully.

"Children, children, stop you're bickering!" Roy said wagging a finger.

"You can talk!" Havoc said, "You sulk like a kid every time Riza tells you off for something."

"Have you ever tried talking back to that woman? Seriously she would kill me…"

Ed listened to his friends speaking around him without really listening at all, the sounds of their voices hummed soothingly in his skull, the melodic tones sounding like a lullaby.

"…and when ever she's telling you to do your paperwo-", Roy clamped a hand over Havoc's mouth and placed a finger on his other hand against his lips. He pointed with the same finger up to Al's shoulders where Ed had fallen asleep leaning his head on his younger brother's shoulder.

_They're still just children… _

Roy thought as they made their way up the small hill towards the house, talking in hushed voices so as not to wake the small blonde.

_They're still just children after all._

I'm quite proud of that one, what do you think, it turned out okay ne?

Review let me know!


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you to my reviewers, you make me very happy!

Erin- why thank you :)

trallgorda- well there is more, hope you enjoy that too

Erienne-thanks

Silverwind89- thanks but it wont get so cute later on. Whoops did I say that out loud?

Katy- heya poppinfresh, how are ya? The reason Bakura isn't in this is because it's a different anime sweetie, the new one I'm obsessed with but don't worry, I'm still writing ones with Kura in! see you at school!

RoseOfSharon28-there is still plenty to come don't worry bout that, I going to try and update once a week :)

Okay second chapter coming right up…

Taking over me

Chapter 2- It starts

* * *

"That was very delicious!" Havoc said leaning back in his chair and patting his stomach.

"Yes, thanks Alex." Riza said politely helping clean up the plates. There was a small chorus of 'thankyou's' and Alex Louis Armstrong merely shook his head.

"It was nothing really, just a recipe passed down through generations of the Armstrong family…" and off he went. Ed stood up and stretched, he was still really tired and unsure of why he felt so drained.

"Night all." He mumbled and headed towards the stairs. Another chorus of 'Night Ed' and the chibi disappeared.

"Bless him. He's adorable really when you get passed the foul mouthed arrogance." Riza said smiling. Roy felt another tug at his heartstrings.

Riza, Winry, Glacier and Fury all disappeared up to bed shortly after Ed (Elysia having gone to bed a few hours before) while Falmann, Havoc, Roy, Armstrong, Hughes and Breda stayed downstairs for a while. They sat around the kitchen table talking mainly of the things they were going to do whilst they stayed with Winry and how they were going to thank her, before finally going up to bed.

Roy walked into the large bedroom he shared with his girlfriend Riza. He took off his shirt and pants and crept into bed in just his boxers. He lay on his side and looked at the beautiful sleeping face of his girlfriend. The same feelings as before, the pulling of his heart, returned and he sighed. It wasn't fair. It shouldn't have happened to someone like her. Someone like Riza, who wanted dearly to have children at some point, only not to be able to have any children at all.

Roy brushed some strands of blonde hair out of her face and sighed again. Shot in the lower abdomen twice. Disabling her to bear children with all the damage done to her womb. That was the reason she was so protective of Ed, Al and Winry. She treated them like her own children because she couldn't have children of her own. Roy sighed for a final time before he lay down and finally went to sleep, his hand covering on top of his girlfriends.

_I still love you _

The next morning Ed woke early to find Al cleaning the breast plate of his armour on the floor in the room they shared.

"Morning brother, did you sleep well?"

Ed shoved his face into the pillow and tried to answer, "Mnnuh…" Al giggled.

"Winry's made breakfast." Al tried to encourage his brother to get out of bed, no easy feat; Ed did indeed love his bed and his sleep very much. "Come on brother, Riza was right, you are lazy." Al said this in hopes to get his brother slightly riled but all it did was gain a well aimed pillow into his empty chest cavity.

"Good shot!" Armstrong boomed suddenly causing Ed to sit bolt upright in bed. The Major stood in the doorway with his arms thrown up in the air in a victory style stance. He let his arms drop heavily back to his sides and walked further into the bedroom, throwing the curtains open blinding them all with the early morning sun.

"What time is it?" Ed's muffled voice sounded as he hid his face behind his arms to block the sunlight.

"It's nine a.m. young sir, and a glorious day!" Armstrong said standing with his hands on his hips staring out at the beautiful acres of land surrounding the Rockbell residence. He left shortly afterwards when his name was shouted from downstairs.

Ed got up and walked towards the window, doing as the Major had done and staring out at the pastures of Risembool. He sighed then turned to start getting dressed, there was no way he'd get back to sleep now.

Ed arrived downstairs to see Elysia, Glacier and Hughes sitting round the kitchen table eating the breakfast Winry had prepared.

"Hey Edo!" Hughes greeted, grinning his usual mile wide smile.

"Morning Edward." Glacier said as she poured a glass of milk for Elysia.

"Good Morning." Ed grumbled throwing himself down in a chair.

"What's up, you seem a little down?" Hughes asked, his cheerful smile fading to be replaced with a look of concern.

"No, I'm just tired." He answered simply while helping himself to a slice of toast from a plate in the middle of the table. He chewed on it slowly and stared off into space for a while. Hughes surveyed him, noticing the dark circles under his eyes and the pale colour of his skin.

_Surely he was never that pale, and has he always been that skinny?_

"You lost weight kido?"

Before Ed could even open his mouth to answer, Winry interrupted and answered for him.

"Yes he has which means he's got to eat more and build up his strength before he goes back to work at the end of the holidays!" Winry felt her stomach tighten slightly as she mentioned, against her will, the end of the holidays. She picked up another slice of toast and offered it to Ed, but he shook his head.

"It's summer, I always eat less in the summer." Winry looked at him for a moment before turning away and taking a whistling kettle off of the stove. Hughes felt her concern for the chibi and looked back at Ed who had spaced out again. Silence descended on the room apart from the occasional clink of the teaspoon on china as Winry made tea and coffee. She placed a mug of black coffee in front of Ed but he made no movement to show he had acknowledged the action whatsoever.

"Yo Ed, you gonna drink that?" Hughes asked with more volume than was necessary, though it had the desired effect and Ed flinched a little and looked at Hughes. He motioned to Ed's coffee, "It'll get cold if you don't drink it."

"Oh right, yeah…thanks Winry." He said detachedly. Winry didn't say anything but just looked at him with an odd look on her face.

Over the next hour, more people joined them for breakfast including Roy and Riza who were saying something about dreams. Ed wasn't really listening. He was staring into space trying to remember something that he had read in a book just over a week ago, something that was now bothering him.

"How 'bout you Ed?" he looked up at Roy who had asked him the question.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"What did you dream about?"

"Oh…I don't really remember."

_I do remember but like I'll tell you bastard_

"It's such a shame when you can't remember your dreams." Riza said stirring her tea, "It makes you wonder what the point in dreams is."

"Don't get being all spiritual with me!" Roy said smirking at his girlfriend who started saying something in defence. Ed got up intending to get away from the sickening sight of his superior officer displaying affection.

"Where you going?" Hughes asked as the blonde passed his chair heading for the back door.

"Nowhere in particular." He answered dully.

_Like I have anywhere to go…_

"Brother do you want to go down to the lake and train again?" Al had arrived downstairs not so long ago.

"Might as well."

The brothers headed down to the lake as they did the day before and initiated another training session. Ed was getting more and more frustrated as every attack he threw at his brother either backfired or did little or no damage.

"Come on brother, you can surely do better than this!" Al sighed as he blocked every punch Ed threw at him then, spotting an opening, braced a palm to his brother's chest and pushed, causing Ed to fall to the ground on his back. Ed growled in frustration, performing a backwards roll and pushing himself to his feet.

_Pull yourself together!_

Ed screamed at himself to get a grip and tried to talk himself into putting more effort in.

_Come on, it's really not that difficult; you've done it plenty of times before._

Ed ran at Al with as much speed as his exhausted body would allow and jumped in the air to deliver a kick to the breastplate. He nearly succeeded but Al grabbed his leg and swung him around. Ed went flying into the lake again, just like the day before and surfaced shaking his wet hair out of his face. He began to wade slowly to the side of the lake, Al coming in halfway to meet him and carry him out, making it easier.

"Lets go get dry, Winry said something about helping clean out the basement today."

"Oh, will the excitement never end!" Ed retorted sarcastically resting his head on his brother's shoulder again. He felt _so_ tired.

"Don't get falling asleep to try and get out of it, you know Winry, she'll just wake you up." Ed pulled a face knowing his brother was right. They finally got to the house to see a pile of junk already out on the grass. "Looks like they already started." They passed Armstrong who was carrying yet more junk and headed down to the basement.

"Yo Winry what do you want us to do?" Ed called when he reached the bottom of the stairwell.

"Just to look at that stuff up the corner, it was stuff your parents asked us to look after ages ago." Ed looked to where she pointed and saw a couple of boxes stacked up. He headed over with Al began to take them down and look through them.

"This stuff is really old, this must have been Mom's before we were born, I've never seen some of this before." Al said looking at a beautiful and delicate butterfly broach. He pulled out a hand mirror next followed by a couple of perfume bottles, still filled with perfume and a picture frame. "Brother look, this must have been taken a long time before we were born, look how young they look!" Al handed the picture frame to Ed who looked at it with an unreadable expression. After a while Ed handed it back without saying anything, but just continued to look through a box filled with books.

"These look ready to fall apart." He pulled a book out that had its spine missing but was still somehow together. He opened the book and looked through it before deeming it worthless and dropping it beside the box.

"Brother, I'm going to keep this picture okay?" Ed stayed silent for a second before nodding. He carried on looking through the box of books, flicking through each one before dropping it on top of the pile next to the box. Al had moved onto the next box and had found some old clothes. He began to look through it, remembering that their Mother would sometimes hide delicate or precious things within the folds of clothing.

"Hey Al, look, a diary." Al looked up as Ed opened the front cover and stared at the name inside, "It's Mom's." Ed passed it to Al, not wanting to look at it himself and looked again into the almost empty box, there were only three books left and all had a slightly familiar purple-ish leather cover.

_February 27th _

_Dear diary, _

_I found something amazing out today, I'm going to be a Mother! I can't wait to tell Hohenheim, he'll be so proud. He's going to be a Daddy. The one thing he wanted to be all this time! I'm not sure I should tell him yet though; he seems so busy with his work. He spends so much time in his study. I wonder if it will be that way when we have our child, I hope not, he would make such a lovely Father. Anyway I must prepare the dinner; he will be hungry when he finally comes out of his hole._

_Trisha _

_xxx_

Al stared at the entry for some time.

_February 27th … that must have been when she found she was pregnant with Ed._

Al thought about showing his brother but decided against it, Ed could be funny about this sort of thing, anything to do with their Mother, and especially their Father. He flicked through the next few entries where his Mother talked about telling their Father and him being delighted. He wondered if she wrote about her being pregnant with him. The diary was quite thick. He flicked through quickly but the entries ended abruptly with lots of blank pages.He suppressed disappointment but decided he didn't really care, after all, what could he do about it?

"These are alchemy books." Al looked up at his brother startled; Ed had been quiet for a long time.

"What kind?"

"I don't know, but it looks complicated." Ed flicked through the one he was holding. Al could see lots of transmutation circles, ones he'd never seen before and there were notes in their Father's handwriting. "I think I might read through them though, see if there's anything of interest."

"Are you sure that's a wise idea I mean…" Al tailed off awkwardly. He had always, deep down, blamed their Father for leaving his alchemy books lying around. That was the reason Ed and Al got into alchemy, because they had found Fathers books and were curious.

"I'm not going to try anything from them, I'm just…curious."

_That's what you said the first time._

They finished looking through all the boxes and ended up throwing most of it away, apart from their Mom's diary and their Father's alchemy books. They helped Winry clear out all the things she didn't want anymore and Hughes suggested a bonfire near the lake.

Later that night, everyone sat on the grass and watched as Roy started the bonfire going, living up to his reputation of flame alchemist. Hughes and Glacier sat with Elysia telling her all about when she was born and how much Ed and Al had 'helped'. Ed felt his heart drop a notch as he thought of Nina and Roy, noticing the mopey expression crossing the teenagers face, quickly changed the subject to something more cheerful. Idle chatter carried on late into the night, mainly about the past, when Ed and Al first showed up in Central. Life seemed so much simpler then. When everybody decided it was time for bed, Roy put out the fire (his ability also let him douse fires as well as spark them) and they all headed back to the house to sleep and dream about the wonderful evening they had all just shared.

* * *

Cheesy much? I seriously couldn't think about how to end that chapter, I guess it turned out okay though, I dunno. I don't care right now either; I'm too tired to care. (Thats a lie.)

Please review, it would make me very happy!


	3. Chapter 3

Thank you to my reviewers, you all made me very, very happy!

Anne Packrat- thank you very much!

Ashley Gordanier- don't worry, things will get better for Riza near the end!

Fliceru01-thanks honey, and here's more especially for you!

RoseOfSharon28- they are found indeed but they will have a very negative effect I'm afraid.

DarkInuHanyou- thank you, im quite proud of it to be honest, I thought I lacked all talent!

Anyway here's the third chapter, hope you enjoy…

(there is a reason its mostly in italics)

Taking over me

Chapter 3-Mistake of years to come

* * *

"_Water; 35 litres, carbon; 20 kilograms, ammonia; 4 litres, lime; 1.5 kilograms, phosphorus; 800 grams."_

"_Salt; 250 grams, saltpetre; 100, sulphur; 80, fluorine; 7.5, iron; 5, silicone; 3 grams."_

"_And trace amount of fifteen other elements." The two young boys stood in the study, checking off everything they needed, "Yeah that's everything. The physical ingredients of the human body. Now if we could just put together a soul, we should be able to call mom back from the other side." The blonder of the two looked at the ingredients and smiled determinedly._

"_Edward, you sure we should do this?"_

"_Of course, don't wimp out on me now-"_

"_But no-ones ever done this right," the other boy's voice rose slightly, anxiousness evident, "I mean alchemy is equivalent exchange. The body content seems simple enough but what about the soul, what could we possibly offer?"_

"_Just hold out your finger okay?" Edward answered harshly pulling out a small penknife. He made a small noise as the blade sliced through the flesh of his left index finger. Al whimpered as Ed drew the blade over his finger too. "It's a soul, really." He said as the brothers held their bleeding fingers over the ingredients and watched the droplets of blood fall. "If you take out the myth, it's just the spark that starts life. This is our blood, from her blood." Ed turned to see his brother's worried expression. "That's a fair trade."

* * *

_

"Brother, are you okay?" Al crept to his brother's bedside. Ed was mumbling in his sleep and he had begun to shift restlessly. Al looked at his brother and decided that Ed was just talking in his sleep so he sat on the floor by the bed and tried to make out what his brother was saying.

* * *

_That ought to do it," Ed stated as he placed the chalk on the ground next to him. He examined the array he had just finished drawing then looked up at his younger brother, "you ready?"_

"_Mmmhmm."_

"_Don't be scared Al, everything's perfect…lets do it."_

"_Mmmhmm." Al nodded but couldn't hide his apprehensive expression. They both leant forward and placed their small hands on the edge of the array, a bright golden light filling the room. Ed smiled into the light._

We're going to do it, its working!

_The golden light gave out a gentle heat, warming their faces and arms._

_Without warning, the golden light flashed a brilliant red and faded to lilac, the warmth intensified becoming hot and almost unbearable._

"_Brother, something's going wrong here." Ed ignored Al's frightened voice and looked the other way, trying to find something that would prove Al wrong._

It can't go wrong, it cant, it just can't!

_Al's scream startled him and he whipped round. Al was holding his arm out and what looked like little black hands were exploring and grabbing at his skin._

"_Al!"

* * *

_

"Is he okay?" Al asked standing behind Winry, Riza and Glacier. He had quickly roused all the women in the house when he noticed that Ed wasn't looking so good. "He was fine before, I just thought he was sleep talking." Ed thrashed around in his bed, whimpering and muttering things incoherently.

"It's just a bad dream." Riza said though she still looked concerned, as though she wasn't sure of herself.

"Should we wake him?" Winry asked.

"No, a nightmare doesn't last forever; he'll either wake up on his own or-" Glacier was cut off as Ed called out in his sleep, making everyone jump.

"Al!"

Al stared at his brother.

_He's having a nightmare…about me?_

Tears slipped out from under Ed's eyelids and crept down the sides of his face, dampening his hair spread out on the pillow.

"Brother please," Al moved forward and sat on the edge of the bed, "Please don't cry over me."

* * *

"_Edward! Brother!" Al's voice ripped through the air. Ed tried to take a step forward but found that he couldn't move. He looked down at his legs to see what the problem was. His breath caught in his throat as he saw more of the same little hands grabbing at the flesh of his left leg._

What is this? Why is this happening?

"_Brother!" Ed looked up to see more of the black hands snatching at his brother, so many that he was no longer on the ground, he was being lifted and pulled into a vortex that had appeared on the wall, emitting the same lilac light. Parts of Al's body seemed suspended in mid-air. His hand wasn't attached to the rest of his arm yet it still moved as though it was. As though his wrist was still there but just not visible to the human eye._

"_Brother please!" Al pleaded, reaching out the arm with the invisible wrist. Ed reached out also, trying to catch his brother's hand. He was inches away but he still couldn't move._

"_NO AL!" He swiped at the air but just as their fingers were about to brush against each others, Al disappeared along with the vortex and all light other than the lone, unsmashed bulb on the wall light. Ed found he could suddenly move again and fell forwards onto the ground.

* * *

_

Al cradled his older brother in his arms, hoping his embrace would calm him, but it did nothing.

"Come on brother, it's just a dream." Ed suddenly convulsed violently and Al hugged him tighter. "Please brother, wake up." Al shook his brother slightly, deciding that Glacier's advice to let Ed sleep through the nightmare wasn't the best thing for him; he had endured this torture long enough.

* * *

"_Alphonse say something! Al no!" Edward screamed into the stone floor of the study. His body had lost feeling and awareness during the transmutation, he could hardly feel the cold stone beneath his body and the fatigue spreading through him. "Al, STAY WITH ME!" his voice rose uncontrollably against his will as he begun to feel pain in his limbs where they were braced against the hard floor. "DAMNIT! THIS WASN'T SUPPOSED TO-" shock and pain flooded his system as he fully regained all feeling. He looked down at the source of most of his pain and saw blood gushing out of what remained of his left leg. "NOOOO!" he screamed out pain, anguish and confusion. Ed remembered the black hands that had been grabbing at his leg and feared what had become of his younger brother._

This can't be right!

"_What have I done? He's gone." He cried softly. Ed looked up and tried to see through the dust that filled the room making visibility difficult. That's when he saw it. "Mom?" the hand waved at him through the dust, waving him closer. He was about to attempt movement when the dust cleared and revealed the mistake that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

* * *

_

"NO!" Ed's eyes snapped open and he lurched forwards, vomiting over the side of the bed. He coughed a few times, his body shaking uncontrollably.

"Brother, are you alright?" Al raced to his brother's side and pulled back his hair as Ed vomited again. Winry disappeared then returned a few minutes later with a glass of water and a bucket which she placed in front of Ed. She then retrieved a blanket and draped it over his shoulders. Ed collapsed into a dreamless sleep in the early hours of the morning lying in his brother's arms.

"I will always be here for you brother, I promise."

* * *

Wow, lotta page breaks!

Shorter than the others, I know and I'm sorry but I'll be sure to make chapter 4 really long, I promise! Please review, it would make me happy!


	4. Chapter 4

Thankie reviewers, you all rock! (I'm afraid I cant reply to them at the moment, for reasons explained at the bottom)

Taking over me

Chapter 4-the thing in the basement.

* * *

Winry opened the door slowly and quietly and stuck her head through the gap.

"Is he awa-oh!" she straightened up in surprise to find Ed standing in the centre of the room. "I didn't think you would be up yet."

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well you were so exhausted from las-"

"Are you kidding? I feel great!"

"Oh well that's good to hear." Winry looked from Ed's smiling, still slightly pale face to Al who was seated on the bed. "Erm, there's some breakfast for you downstairs."

"Great, I'm starving!" Winry moved out of the doorway to let Ed pass and watched him disappear down the stairs.

"Wow, what a recovery."

"He's not fully recovered but he won't let us see him at his weakest moments, he has a lot of pride." Al said standing up and turning to make the bed. "He's always been that way as long as I can remember whenever he was ill when we were younger, he would always be up and around before he was completely better but I knew it was because he didn't want to seem weak."

"Yeah, I remember." Winry said quietly thinking about the time that Ed and Al had caught chicken pocks (1). Ed had gotten out of bed saying he was as good as new even though he was still covered in little tiny red blotches. She smiled slightly at this memory as she and Al headed downstairs. Riza, Glacier, and Winry had decided not to tell any of the men that Ed had had a nightmare as it would result in no ending torment to the younger boy. He went through enough already because of his height.

"So, what's everybody doing today?" Riza asked as she placed her empty teacup on the table.

"I'm helping Winry clean out the attic today." Fury said and a few of the other men nodded their heads in agreement, mainly because Winry had threatened to kick them out if they didn't help.

"How about you?" Roy asked looking at his girlfriend.

"I'm cleaning Al's armor; it's getting dirty and driving me crazy!" Al looked around at her with, they could only guess, a rather scared expression on his face. "don't worry I'll be gentle."

"What are you going to do Ed?" Glacier asked the small blonde. Ed looked up suddenly as though shocked that anyone would talk to him.

"I think I'm going to read my Dad's books."

Not long after, the group separated to do what they had planned. The men and Winry left for the attic, Glacier and Riza half dragged Al outside so they could clean his armor properly without making a mess and Ed went upstairs and sat in his room reading his Father's books.

He stared at the purple-ish leather cover for a long while, just stared at it, not really sure of what he was doing.

_Do I really want to open this book?_

_Yes, I do._

He slowly looked through the book, noticing his Father's handwriting across most of the pages, noting how messy it was.

_Like mine._

He cursed himself for that thought and carried on looking through the book. He reached the inside of the back cover and almost gasped. Drawn on the inside of the cover were two transmutation circles, one above the other, and on the other side, lots of notes hastily scribbled down. Ed couldn't read them they were that messy. The transmutation circles looked like none he'd ever seen before. They were very pretty and held intricate designs. They didn't even really look like transmutation circles, but Ed knew they were by the fact that they were in an alchemy book.

_What was he trying to do?_

Ed noticed a few words beneath the first transmutation circle that he hadn't noticed before.

_To fix everything_

Even though Ed had no idea what this meant, his heart leapt.

_To fix everything, to fix Al, to fix me!_

He didn't even know why he decided to try it out, but he headed down two flights of stairs into the recently emptied basement, chalk in his left hand, book in the other. He knelt on the cold stone floor, held the book close to his face and copied the transmutation circle at the top of the page. It took him the best part of an hour, making sure he got every line just right. When he had finished he stood at the edge of the circle and admired his work. He looked back at the book, double checking he had everything right. When he was satisfied, he knelt down at the edge of the circle. Flashbacks from the previous nights dream invaded his brain, but he pushed them away.

_I have to do this, for Al._

He placed his hands on the edge of the circle and was temporarily blinded by a warm golden light, the sign of something good. He smiled into the light once more, familiar swooping sensation in his stomach whenever he came across a discovery in his alchemy. He opened his eyes and looked into the center of the circle, but the elated expression slid off his face.

_What the hell is that?_

Rising seemingly out of no-where, out of the ground, it was a body. Ed gasped and tried to pull his hands away from the circle, to stop the transmutation, but they were stuck, refused to do as they were told by his brain. He looked up again in horror, the body now fully emerged and hanging in mid-air, as though being hoisted up by invisible ropes. The light disappeared quickly and Ed was left in darkness, staring up at the still floating body. Something wasn't quite right about this though (as if a randomly floating body is right), he could see right through the body but it still had a solid outline. He reluctantly stood and slowly walked towards the body. It hadn't moved and Ed counted that as a blessing, but it didn't seem dead either. He was a few yards away when it began to slowly sink towards the floor. Ed stared.

_How was this supposed to help fix everything?_

As he looked at the body it seemed to take a deep but slow breath. He stopped walking abruptly and his eyes widened.

_It's alive!_

As the body's feet finally reached the floor, it stood on its own. Spreading its feet to support its weight and its head slowly titled back until it was looking straight. But it had no eyes, it had _no face. _Just a smooth surface where the face should be.

_How can it breathe?_

But Ed had no time to think further on this subject as the body took a step towards him, considerably closing the gap between them.

_Shit! Maybe it can't see me._

He stepped to the side a few times to get out of the way, but the body, no _monster, _followed his movement and all the while closing distance. Ed backed up until he hit the wall and the monster came to a stop in front of him. Ed could only stare in childlike fascination and fear as the monster took in another deep breath and exhaled it slowly. It then reached forward with its hand and placed it heavily on Ed's shoulder. He couldn't move only stare and panic as he felt its grip increase on his shoulder until it began to hurt. Ed placed his hands to the things chest to push it away but his hands went straight through it.

_How can this be? Why can it touch me, but I cant touch it?_

He felt the pressure on his shoulder increase further still. He closed his eyes and cried out in pain but as he did so, he felt a sudden gust of wind enter his mouth causing his cry to die in his throat and disenable him to breathe for a second. When he got his breath back he opened his eyes and looked around the basement for the thing. But he couldn't see it, nor was there a transmutation circle on the floor anymore. He raised a hand to the shoulder which the thing touched and found it to be coated in dry sand. He brushed the sand off with confusion and looked once more around the room. Nothing looked out of place. He decided to leave the spooky basement and go outside in the sunshine, where there were a lot of people who could determine whether he was insane or not.

"Brother! Save me!" his head whirled in the direction of his younger brothers voice and saw, to his great relief, no monster attacking his little brother, but Glacier and Riza chasing him around trying to get him to stay still so they could clean his armor.

_It's taken them this long?_

He had been in the basement for at least two hours. What was going on?

* * *

I know, I know, shitty chapter, but I haven't been myself recently and I'm so very sorry for the extremely long wait, but like I said, I haven't been myself. I will update again soon, I promise but I really should be doing coursework at present and if my mom finds out otherwise, I'll be banned from using the computer for two weeks!

Please review my shitty chapter.


	5. Chapter 5

You know, exams really suck…

Sorry again for the extremely long wait, but I'm revising for exams and thought I'd take a break and write. Cheers for my reviews they made me feel good

I apologise but this chapter will be a bit short

Taking over me

Chapter 5-the first encounter

* * *

Ed dismissed every confused thought from his mind and decided to join in with the chase for his little brother. He suddenly noticed how happy and healthy he felt. He noticed how much energy he had. When before he had entered the basement, he had felt weak and beaten. He rushed over to Riza and Glacier and in a matter of minutes had pinned Al down and was scrubbing the inside of his armour since he was small enough to fit inside.

Al lay on his front with his head detached, Riza carefully cleaning every crevice in the armoured design of his helmet while Glacier cleaned the outside of his body. Ed stood on all fours half in and half out of the huge chest cavity, occasionally backing out to dunk the scrubbing brush he was using into a bucket of soapy water. He was careful to make sure the blood seal didn't get wet at all. When Al was clean he reattached his head and sat up letting his armour dry in the sun. Ed sat next to him watching as Roy, Fury, Havoc and Armstrong messed around in the lake.

"Did you find anything new in Dad's books?" Ed jumped at Al's voice.

"No, not really, same old alchemy." Ed smiled briefly looking up at his brother.

"That's a shame, you wanna fight?"

"Yeah, okay." they got up and headed to the area behind the bushes they used to battle. Ed stretched himself out so he was loose and flexible while Al made sure he was attached properly and to avoid any armour flying should it come off. When their little ritual was finished they began to fight, catching the attention of the men in the lake. They all climbed out to dry off and watch the battle.

Ed's frustration was becoming apparent as once again his younger brother was besting every attack he dealt. The men on he sidelines jeered as Ed went flying away from his brother. He landed on his back and growled as he felt the numbing pain spread across his shoulder blades. He slowly pushed himself up onto his elbows and looked towards where his brother was standing ready for another assault. He stood up slowly wincing as he stretched his back. He steadied himself then ran at his brother with as much speed as he could muster. He launched into the air and delivered a devastating kick to Al's breastplate, or he would have liked to. Just like the time before he was swung around by his leg and released at a high velocity away from his brother.

_This isn't going to plan…_

Ed got up again growling in frustration. He suddenly felt angry. He didn't know why, he had lost to Al many times but he felt almost hatred at the fact that this little boy could defeat him. Granted the little boy was encased in a giant suit of armour with amazing strength and durability but still, he was a child no less. Anger erupted in Ed's chest. Without even realising he was doing it, as if he wasn't in control of his body anymore, he began to run at Al with speed he didn't know his short legs could reach. He ran towards his brother and jumped again. This time, Ed was too fast for Al's reactions. He reached a hand out to catch Ed's leg but he was no where near fast enough to actually catch hold onto it. His hand was half way there as he felt his helmet dislodge from his body.

"That's more like it Edward!" Havoc yelled. Al picked his helmet up and secured it back onto his body he turned ready to face his brother again but just as he began to pivot on the ball of his foot, he heard a clap. If he had a heart it would have been racing. He felt two hands placed to his back and cried out as he felt the cackle of an alchemic reaction course through his armour.

Back at the house, Glacier and Riza were just cleaning up the teacups used by Falmann, Breda, Hughes and Winry when a loud explosion disturbed the peaceful conversations. They all glanced at each other before getting up and rushing outdoors towards the lake.

"E-Edward…" Armstrong said weakly as Ed stood over the fragments of his brother's armour. Al hadn't been destroyed but he had been badly damaged. His helmet and a majority of his breastplate was still intact as well as his left arm and shoulder. His left leg was still attached and whole whereas the right side of his body was in shards scattered around on the floor beside him.

"You cannot defeat me, and the next time you try, I won't leave so much of you behind." Ed growled out, his voice low and layered, as though more than one person were trying to speak out of Ed's mouth but forcing Ed to speak the same words. His eyes were completely black, no white or gold shining through.

"B-brother!" Al cried. Winry and the others rounded the bushes to see the frightening display of the many pieces of Al covering the ground.

"Ed, Al, what happened?" Winry asked looking around with wide eyes.

Ed blinked a few times, the blackness clearing and his original gold coming through. He looked around and gasped seeing Al scattered all over the floor. He put his hands to his mouth and stepped back. He went to speak, lowering his hands a little but couldn't find anything to say. He turned and fled, away from the horrible sight that he caused.

No. He hadn't caused it. Someone else had. Someone inside of him. He could feel a weight in his chest and knew that there was something there. Someone. He knew he hadn't done that. Knew that when he had felt that anger, it was someone else's anger at being beaten by a child. How the person knew it was a child, he didn't know. He needed to get his head sorted, this was crazy! Someone inside of him? What was he thinking?

Ed stopped when he couldn't run anymore. He leant his back against a tree a slid down to the floor gasping for air.

_What is the matter with me? What did I do to Al?_

"_**What you should have done a long time ago."**_

Ed yelled and scrambled away from the tree, whirling around to find the speaker.

"Who are you? Where are you?"

"**_Right here."_** Ed felt that sensation again, the feeling that he wasn't in control anymore. Ed felt his arm lift up and felt as he tapped his right temple with his right hand. The sensation left and his arm dropped back to his side.

"Get out of my head!" Ed yelled placing his hands either side of his head and closing his eyes tight.

"**_And why would I do that?"_** Ed didn't respond, he just opened his eyes and tried to calm his breathing which has increased and coming out in sharp gasps.

_I've had too much sun that's all, I'm not crazy, I'm not crazy!_

"**_No, quite right, you're not crazy. But you are what I need."_** Ed didn't know what to do. What could he do? There was a voice inside his head, talking to him and occasionally taking over his body and controlling his movements! There wasn't much he could do.

"I-what do you want with me? Why do you need me?" Ed decided to reason with the voice. Act like an adult and maybe the voice will go away, like when a child has an imaginary friend but then when the child grows up, they go and disappear along with the childlike innocence.

"_**I want my freedom, and in order to do that I need you to carry out some preparations. I can't do them on my own; you saw what was left of me down in the basement."**_

"That was you?"

"_**Yes. Now what I need is for you to do as you're told, can you promise me that you will do everything I say?"**_

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"_**I can not prove my trust to you with out my body." **_

"Then I guess I cant trust you."

"**_Grant me my freedom and you will be greatly rewarded."_** Ed thought this through.

"How so?" the voice paused here.

"_**Well, what do you want?"**_

"I want to regain the bodies me and my brother were born with, I owe him that."

"_**Fine, I can do that-"**_

"And I want you to get out of my head as soon as possible, what do I have to do?"

"_**You came around quick."**_

"I know what I want and I'll do anything to obtain it-"

"Edward?" Ed whirled around to see Roy standing behind him. He was about to speak when Roy took hold of the lapels of his jacket and lifted him right off the ground, slamming his back up against the tree. Ed cried out in pain as Roy began to hiss at him. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Roy, let him go!" Riza cried out, coming over the hill and rushing towards them. Roy did as he was told and stepped back as Ed fell to the ground.

"You blew up Al, your own little brother!"

"I didn't mean to-"

"Oh sure-"

"Roy, let him speak."

"I didn't want to do it, I couldn't control myself-"

"**_Don't tell him I'm here!" _**

"Speak!" Roy ordered and Ed jumped, he hadn't realised he had fallen silent when the voice spoke to him again.

"I…I just didn't think. I wasn't myself."

"Edward, I think you should come with us, apologise to Al and I think you had better fix him." Ed nodded, feeling hot tears prickle at the back of his eyes. He followed Riza and a fuming Roy back to where the incident had happened. Everybody fell silent as Ed walked over to his brother.

"Al, I'm sorry, I didn't man to do this to you." Al remained silent. "I'll fix you now okay?" Still nothing. Ed looked at all the shards of his brother lying on the ground neatly next to him. It appeared the others had found them all. He wanted to turn and run again, could feel his heart beat increase as he took in the devastating effect of what he had done. He clapped his hands and put them to the biggest remaining part of his brothers breastplate. The alchemic reaction was over in seconds and when Al saw that he was repaired, he got up without a word and headed up to house.

"Al! I'm sorry!" but Al just ignored him and carried on walking. Ed could feel anger inside him again. The thing housed inside of him getting angered by its host being ignored. He could feel it willing him to go after his brother but he just screamed no and ran in the other direction, out of earshot of the others and way away from anyone to blow apart. Al may have just been metal but the others were flesh and blood and bone. A lot harder to repair.

* * *

Yeah I know, it made absolutely no sense but meh WTF? I'll update some point in the near future but I have exams so, they come first I'm afraid. Please review 


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